Last summer I got a job at a deli. I worked generally between 25 to 35 hours a week, and earned a decent paycheck. I decided to buy a camera with some of the money, and I embarked on a new hobby and journey. I have enjoyed every shot and step along the way, and I learned a lot of new things about my camera, cameras in general, and editing. I learned a lot about techniques of shooting too, and I can’t imagine picking up another hobby, however time-consuming, and sometimes bank breaking, photography may be. Seriously, though, someone told me the joke that if you want your kid to be a good kid and have them stay away from stuff like drugs and alcohol, get them into photography, because they won’t be able to afford anything else. Still, I set out on a goal to show everyone what I saw through a camera lens, and I have begun to accomplish those goals. With my new job this summer, I will be able to afford to go new places. I will be releasing more pictures and details of those travels as they develop (No pun intended).

But alas, it’s been about a year since I have begun photography, and I want to show everyone my top 5 favorite pictures that I have taken over the past year. It was difficult finding my favorites because ultimately I love all the pictures I take. But without further ado, let’s get to it.

I took this picture when my family took a ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee for a lacrosse tournament. I really like this picture for a couple of reasons. First, I really enjoyed how the concrete divider separates a calm and a rougher water. I found this to be a really cool effect. I really like the angle that I had of it at the time, and I think that it gave the shot more depth, more than any other angle would have. The framing was really good too, and it allowed the intended effect to be present. Plus, the sign at the base of the divider looks cool too. No filter or edit was added to this photo.

This next photo I took in Hawaii on top Haleakala, a dormant volcano on Maui. This is actually a sunrise, not a sunset. I was taking some pictures during the sunrise, and then decided to try a panorama because the focus on the clouds off of the sun was turning out better, and the aperture decided to cooperate for the shot, and I ended up with one of the most beautiful pictures I have taken to date. I love this picture a lot, and the best part is that no edits were made either. I took that shot, and thought to myself, this is a perfect picture. If you go to Hawaii, please make an effort to come here. Yes you have to get up early because the sunrise is early and it’s a long drive up the mountain, but it is so worth it. It was a surreal experience, and an enlightening one as well. It was something that made me appreciate nature and the beauty of all the little things around me. One of my all-time favorites.

Sunset by Pier

Yeah, it’s another picture with the sun, I know. But this one means a lot to me. Not because it is from anywhere exotic. It’s because this is a Michigan sunset. I love going to the beach here in Michigan, and I love to take pictures of the Mitten State any chance I get. This sunset was remarkable in particular because it had been so nice out the days previous, that boaters were finally able to get out on the water, and I had the opportunity to get a silhouette of this sailboat, which just enhanced the beauty of the sunset. No clouds in the sky or anything, Just a beautiful picture, and no edits or filters either.

Woman in Red

I took this photo on Bradley University’s campus, and thanks to my wonderful friend, Christina Herbst, I was able to capture this moment. I really liked the idea of singling out a color specifically for a shot, and I decided to use red because it tends to stick out the most. It was winter then, and there was a lot of snow still on the ground, so it helped with the contrast that the color has with the black and white. This shot was a technical feat for me, as I had not done extensive editing like I did on this one. I want to do some more pictures like this soon, and I think that they will play out interestingly. Getting people to pose for shots can sometimes be funny too, as this was my first directed photo shoot, so I had to tell Christina how to pose, and I was initially not really prepared for that sort of thing. But Christina was fantastic to work with and I hope to work with her again soon.

This last photo I took in Chicago last summer. A lot of people like it, and at first, I wasn’t sure exactly why. Then I started to look at it a little more and I realized how much I liked the yellow and blue contrast. The interesting thing about this photo was I took this shot in the dead of night. But the sky turned out blue, so I guess that was something that was pretty interesting. This was a shot that I had never intended to happen honestly. It was cool to see this one turn out better than some of the other shots did. Mind that this was at the beginning of my photography career, and there was a lot I didn’t know about my camera yet. No edits were made to this shot.

Takeaway

What did I take away from my first year of photography? Well, I learned the best shots you take are the ones you don’t expect. They just sort of happen. The only shot that I took here that was “planned” was the one I took of Christina. Everything else was spur of the moment. I either saw something and thought, hey that’s pretty cool, and took the picture, or I accidentally took the picture not thinking much of it and then looking at it later and really enjoying it. I also learned that patience is really important in photography. You have to be patient to get better at it. Yeah, technology helps a lot, but you have to really learn how to focus shots, frame them, get the tilt correct, and a variety of other components. I have taken endless mistake shots before getting the money shot that I wanted. The other thing that I took away from my experiences in the past year is that you have to go off the beaten path. You have to be brave with your shots and what you are doing to take a picture. The picture of Christina, I almost got hit by a car while sitting in the road during winter. I didn’t care, though, I wanted a good shot. I almost fell on top of a bunch of people getting the panorama shot because I was standing on a bunch of rocks. Go out there and look for the shots you want, and they will start coming to you. The last thing I learned about photography was sometimes the best shot isn’t the one that people are always crowded around. Yeah, sometimes it is the best shot, but the one I took off the wave breaker in Milwaukee for example, no one was taking any pictures of that at all. No one was taking pictures of the lamps either. I did, though, and look what I ended up with. They are awesome pictures that I am proud of.

Here’s to another year of photography ahead of me, and hoping that it is better than the last, and that I can keep learning interesting things and taking pictures that I and others enjoy until the day I die.